By Chris Brawley Morgan
Special Correspondent
As printed in The Oklahoman, March 8, 2008.

Hope Crossing looks like any new neighborhood with compact brick starter-homes – only perhaps a little tidier.

Hope Crossing, however, is different. It is a nonprofit enterprise, the only neighborhood developed by Central Oklahoma Habitat for Humanity. Habitat coordinates home buyers' "sweat equity" with the community resources and volunteers' skills to build homes for qualified, low-income families.

Hope Crossing, west of Kelley Avenue at NE 83, has gone so well that Habitat may undertake a similar project on the opposite side of town, in southwest Oklahoma City.

"I'm looking for property again," said Ann Felton, chairman and chief executive of Central Oklahoma Habitat for Humanity.

One year after construction began, Hope Crossing has 31 homes lining both sides of NE 83.

"It's my home. I love it," said Melissa DeVeau, who moved into her home on Aug. 10, her son Brack's third birthday.

DeVeau, a single mother, is a medical technician who previously lived in an Edmond apartment. She is enjoying her three-bedroom, two-bath home, but she also likes its location.

"The people in this neighborhood are amazing, so nice," DeVeau said.

The new neighbors often get together and walk with their children, she said.

"I ordered the playground equipment last week," Felton told DeVeau. "I'm so excited about it," DeVeau said.

Hope Crossing obviously is still in creation. Hammers regularly tap-tap on new roofs. Big trucks thunder through newly paved streets.

Another 10 homes are under construction, as are a 2 ½-acre park and several greenbelts.

Then there's the clamor caused by regular visitors. Last week, 100 students, members of the Inter-Fraternity Council at the University of Central Oklahoma, spent Saturday framing another two houses.

In all, more than 7,000 people helped build 39 Habitat homes last year in the Oklahoma city area; 31 were in Hope Crossing.Central Oklahoma Habitat is one of the largest Habitat operations in the nation, ranking eighth in the production of new homes, said Duane Bates, spokesman for Habitat for Humanity International in Atlanta. The Houston affiliate is No. 1, based on 2006 figures, the most recent ones available, he said.

The 1,600 Habitat affiliates operate autonomously, deciding the best ways to build homes locally. On the coasts, Habitat organizations often build multiunit homes, which function like condominiums. In less-crowded areas of the country, "subdivisions are definitely part of the mix," Bates said. Central Oklahoma Habitat decided to develop a neighborhood because of its "aggressive building schedule," Felton said. "We just couldn't acquire enough property. There is such a great need for affordable homes here." Habitat launched Hope Crossing in late 2005, when 59 acres at NE 83 and Kelley Avenue were donated by Edmond real estate investor Stephen Hurst and his partners in TexOK Properties LP, Felton said.

Estimated to be worth about $550,000, the land was then a field, with a few cattle grazing on it, Felton said.

Hope Crossing's 59 acres were once scheduled to be the northern section of the Gold Medal Hills addition, a project of builder-developer Grady Musgrave in the early 1960s. Grady Musgrave & Co. built several hundred homes in the addition called Musgrave's Gold Medal Hills, which is now adjacent to Hope Crossing.

The original plan for Gold Medal Hills called for more than 500 homes and a shopping center.

Musgrave built thousands of homes and developed several additions during the post-World War II boom. He died in 1977.

For Hope Crossing, the city of Oklahoma City spent $350,000 providing infrastructure – roads, water, sewer and drainage – for Hope Crossing's first phase of 31 homes. Robert Fillmore of Fillmore Design Group provided five house designs, which average 1,250 square feet.

Felton said the homes cost about $85,000 to build, but appraise at about $125,000.

Prices are kept low partly because the community helps with the construction.

For instance, in the past year, volunteers from All Souls' Episcopal Church and 7-Eleven stores each built two houses in Hope Crossing.

The first occupants of Hope Crossing represent a diverse cross-section of the population. There are many single mothers and one single dad.

"It's a really good mix of black, white, Hispanic and Asian," Felton said.

Many of the new homeowners, all first-time owners, are young, but one couple is in their 60s.

"They just never thought they would own a house," she said.

To become eligible for a home, each family contributes 300 hours of volunteer "sweat equity" with Habitat, helping build others' homes as well as their own.

In the case of Hope Crossing, "before they move in, they already know their neighbors," Felton said.

Qualifying families purchase homes from Habitat for the cost of building them, with no profit added, under zero-interest mortgages. No down payment is charged and monthly mortgage payments are based on income.

Families often find that they spend less on mortgage payments than they were paying for rent, Felton said.

"Our goal is to help families spiral up," she said.

In fact, she said, a child raised in a home owned by parents is 25 percent more likely to graduate from high school, according to U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development figures.

Hope Crossing is now in its second 60-lot phase of development. Chesapeake Energy Corp. provided a $250,000 grant for infrastructure work.

To help develop the neighborhood's park, a family contributed $75,000 to honor Helen Lincoln Brown and retired Col. William Ray Brown Sr. of the U.S. Air Force.

The park will include a playground with swings, a playing field with a baseball backstop, picnic tables and newly planted trees, all of which are surrounded by curving walking paths.

About 50 volunteers from LifeChurch are set to install playground equipment on April 5, Felton said.

The Meinders Foundation and Samuel Roberts Noble Foundation each awarded a grant of $100,000; and 7-Eleven Stores provided a $300,000 grant over three years.

"I think we have a great brand in the community. I think we are truly blessed by God as well," Felton said.

In all, Hope Crossing will have more than 200 homes over five phases that will probably take four years, she said.

In the meantime, Habitat will continue building across the metropolitan area, including Midwest City, Bethany, Guthrie and Mustang.

This article appeared in The Oklahoman, www.newsok.com, on March 8, 2008.